CarBrandLogos archive · Simca · 1967

SimcaSimca 1100

Front drive, a tailgate and folding seats in 1967, years before the rest.

Photo: FaceMePLS from The Hague, The Netherlands · CC BY 2.5

The story

A defining chapter in Simca history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Simca 1100, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

The 1100 is one of the more underrated cars of the 1960s, because almost every family hatchback built since follows its layout. Launched in 1967, it put a transversely mounted four-cylinder engine driving the front wheels, with all-independent suspension by torsion bars, disc brakes at the front and rack-and-pinion steering, under a three or five-door body with a proper tailgate and folding rear seats.

Matra Rancho vue arriere · Julien FLORENT · CC BY-SA 3.0

Design and engineering

That combination, front drive plus a hatchback plus a genuinely variable interior, was not yet standard practice: the Golf was seven years away and the Renault 5 was five. The 1100 offered a small car's road tax and running costs with an estate's usefulness, which was exactly what French families wanted, and it became one of the country's best-selling cars in the early 1970s. Engines ranged from 944 cc to nearly 1.3 litres, and there were estate, van and pickup versions.

Simca 1100 Special-79 · Simca_1100_Special.jpg: Brinkie derivative work: Ligabo (talk) · CC BY-SA 3.0

In production

Its commercial life ran far past its passenger car career. Simca and later Talbot kept the VF van in production until 1985 because nothing in the group replaced it properly, and the floorpan and driveline underpinned the 1307 that followed. The Horizon inherited the concept, and Chrysler Europe's American parent copied it wholesale for the Dodge Omni and Plymouth Horizon.

Simca 1100 LS · FaceMePLS from The Hague, The Netherlands · CC BY 2.0

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

1967–1985

Engine

944&nbsp

Body

3/5-door hatchback

Technical specification

The Simca 1100, in detail.

Production: 1967–1985
Class: C-segment compact family car
Body style: 3/5-door hatchback; 5-door estate; 2-door coupe utility (pickup); 3-door van
Layout: Front engine, front-wheel drive
Engine: 944 cc Simca Poissy engine; type 352/3D1 Straight-four engine; I4 ; 1118 cc Simca Poissy engine; type 350/3E1 I4 ; 1204 cc Simca Poissy engine; type 353/3F1 I4 ; 1294 cc Simca Poissy engine; type 366/
Assembly: Poissy, France ; Madrid, Spain (as Simca 1200)
Manufacturer: Simca